91 



breaks the Cascade chain of mountains, for a long distance on 

 the Pacific coast. For twelve degrees south of its mouth, no 

 river flows into the ocean but those which rise on the west side of 

 these mountains, the range of which thus connects, without inter- 

 ruption, with the Sierra Nevada of California. 



Capt. Fremont was unable, therefore, to follow a watercourse 

 to the Pacific, as he had hoped, and instead of this, was compelled 

 to cross with his whole party the high range of this Sierra, in 

 mid winter. He effected this between January 19th and March 

 6th, without losing a man. The lowest point of the pass which 

 he followed, is nearly eight thousand feet above the sea. His 

 Indian guides thought the undertaking madness, and all deserted 

 him successively. As his provisions were failing also, it may be 

 considered as a most daring and triumphant effort. 



He refitted at Nueva Helvetia, travelled southwards till he 

 could turn, by Walker's pass, the southern flank of this range of 

 the Sierra, then, by the Spanish caravan trail, worked his way 

 northeasterly again, until near the Salt Lake, whose southern 

 waters he visited, and thence returned home by the waters of the 

 Smoky Hill Fork, making a survey of the head waters of the 

 great rivers of the Mississippi, as he passed. He arrived at 

 Kansas again, July 31st, 1844. 



The distance thus travelled on horseback, with a few light 

 wagons for instruments, and a mountain howitzer, was five thou- 

 sand one hundred and nine miles. 



The geographical discovery, the principal feature of which 

 has been noticed, is, undoubtedly, the most valuable scientific 

 result of the expedition. From the time when he left the Salt 

 Lake, till he returned to it, he was travelling around the three 

 sides of a triangle whose area is some two hundred thousand 

 square miles. Of this district little is known, though the hunters 

 and trappers give terrible accounts of its sterility. But Capt. 

 Fremont, in travelling wholly around it, proved that its waters do 

 not discharge from it in any direction into the ocean. For he 

 traced the ranges of mountains which separate it from the Missis- 

 sippi, the Colorado, the Columbia and the Sacramento. 



This basin presents some analogy, therefore, with that of the 

 Caspian Sea in Asia. It may possibly prove that the Salt Lake 

 is the result of its system of rivers. 



